The Trade Marks Office decision in Bombala Council v Peter Wilkshire[2009] ATMO 33 suggests that the section 62A ground of opposition in relation to applications made in bad faith may have quite broad application and seems to confirm the approach taken in the first Office decision on the ground in Hard Coffee Pty Ltd v Hard Coffee Main …
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The Productivity Commission, the Australian Government’s independent research and advisory body on a range of economic, social and environmental issues, has recommended the removal of the current Parallel Import Restrictions (PIRs) for books. The Commission recommends that repeal should take effect three years after the date that it is announced. The PIRs form part of Australia’s Copyright …
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IPONZ has reviewed its practice of examining specifications of goods or services in line with international best practice. Trade Mark Examiners will no longer object to the unqualified goods “personal care products” in class 3 or to the unqualified services “tourism services” and “tourist services” when those descriptions appear in classes 39, 41, or 43. …
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Rod Beckstrom has replaced Australian Paul Twomey (who has retired) as the head of ICANN (Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers), the world’s Internet domain name regulator. The announcement is here.
IP Australia has announced that a designated Australia Post office in each state and the Northern Territory will become the lodgement centre for documents and payment of fees relating to registered IP rights and new applications. The rolling transition will commence in September 2009 with Tasmania and conclude by August 2010.
Technicon has been unsuccessful in its appeal against the decision of Cowdry J reported in which the trial judge found that Technicon had infringed Caroma’s registered design. The Full Court decision in Technicon Industries Pty Ltd v Caroma Industries Ltd [2009] FCAFC 76 largely affirms the reasoning at first instance and in doing so gives approval to what appears to …
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New IP Regulations will amend the Patents Regulations 1991 from 1 July to update the English text of the Regulations under the Patent Cooperation Treaty (PCT Rules) to reflect the changes that were agreed to at the PCT Union meeting of September 2008.
Facebook has announced that it is allowing Facebook page administrators to for trade marks previously blocked by them. It appears that the first applicant for a trade mark held by a number of people (in different classes or jurisdictions) is more likely to be successful, although Facebook reserves the right to remove or reallocate a name …
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Melbourne’s Age newspaper has reported today that Police have seized almost 7,000 pirated computer games and DVDs after raids on a computer swap meet and two private homes.
In the recent decision Fermiscan v James [2009] NSWSC 546, a second invention for a method and instrument for analysing nail and skin samples using X-ray diffraction to screen for disease was found not to be an improvement on a first invention by the same inventor for substantially the same method and instrument, the difference being that …
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